Ministry of Commerce & Industry
Online Government e-Marketplace for smart public procurement—GeM has come up with new features steadily growing with new product and service categories: Commodore Munjal.
Ministry of Commerce and Industry is organising “Seller Samvad” at several places in order to increase the participation of sellers offering an array of products and services.
GeM has surpassed the milestone of INR 1 Lakh Crore of procurement value, in a single fiscal year in FY 21-22.
The online Government e-Marketplace for smart public procurement—GeM has come up with new features steadily growing with new product and service categories being added constantly said Commodore Shri BalbirMunjal, VSM , Defence Advisor, GeM.
Addressing the ‘Seller Samvad’ held in the Conference Hall of Press Information Bureau, Vijayawada today, he said GeM is a one-stop procurement portal for all Government Buyers, including Central/State Ministries, Departments & PSUs.
He said ‘Seller Samvad’ is being organised across the country by Ministry of Commerce and Industry at several places in order to increase the participation of sellers offering an array of products and services. Launched on August 9, 2016, as part of the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, GeM is known for redefining public procurement and has been able to bring about radical changes in the way procurement was done by Government buyers and public sector undertakings, he added. It is contactless, paperless, and cashless and stands on three pillars viz., efficiency, transparency, and inclusivity.
With the buyer base of GeM comprising all Central and State Government departments, Cooperative societies, and public sector undertakings; the heterogeneous nature of GeM’s seller base clearly reflects on the founding pillar of ‘inclusivity’, he said.
Commodore Munjal further elaborated that GeM has surpassed the milestone of INR 1 Lakh Crore of procurement value, in a single fiscal year in FY 21-22. Cumulatively, GeM has facilitated over 1 Crore transactions valued at over INR 2.82 Lakh Crore. This has only been possible with the support of all stakeholders including buyers and sellers across the country. Starting from the big companies and conglomerates, the seller base includes women entrepreneurs, Self Help Groups, and MSME sellers from all over the country.
Emphasising on special provisions that have been created on the GeM portal to ensure a seamless onboarding experience for MSMEs and SHGs, Shri Munjal said, it is worth mentioning that 61 thousand registered Government buyers and 48.6 lakh sellers and service providers speak for the size and scale of GeM operations. He maintained that currently, there are about 300 service categories and over 10000+ product categories available on GeM. These categories feature around 44 lakhs catalogues of product and service offerings.
He said since its beginning in 2016, GeM is evolving and relentlessly working towards adding new features and functionalities to the portal— as approximately 2000 minor and 460+ major functionalities have been introduced in the last 24 months.
Sellers from various business entities and media attended the ‘Seller Samvad’ where they were enlightened on the functionalities of the GeM portal and its conducive operating nature. Some sellers were forthcoming to share their experiences and share the same with others to learn from and get inspired and able to impact a large set of sellers as stakeholders in India’s public procurement ecosystem.